A Letter From the Guard
by 90TheGeneral09
Summary: "Settling Accounts: The Grapple by Harry Turtledove". A Lee Mk. VI "Tiger" tank driver's letter home, written on October 17th, 1943.


**A Letter From the Guard**

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Dear Mother,

I don't know how long I'll have to write this. It could be a real long letter, or a real short one. Depends on how much the Yankee bombers try to bother us tonight.

The Tigers we're using now are the best tanks in the world. They're big. Real big. The gun we mount in them is the same size as one of the Air Force's air defence cannons, an 5-inch gun, or 103mm. When we fire at the Yankee tanks- they call them "barrels"- they blow up every time.

Word is somebody thought to call the Lee Mark VI tanks "Tigers" because they have claws that can tear into anything. They also say the armor on them is invincible. The Yankees shoot and shoot, and the Tiger just keeps coming.

Chief Assault Leader Wainer, my company commander, says Tigers are a sign from God. A signal, just like the Tredegar automatics, the Razorbacks and the Mules, that God wants to see our Confederacy retake the land the Yankees stole from us, teach those stupid niggers their place and win this war for good. Jake will see us through this one. I know he will.

I'm really glad I joined the Freedom Party Guards and not the Army. We get sent the most Tigers because Jake knows he can trust us with them. We go forward. We never go back. If they just gave us enough Tigers we could win the war by ourselves.

You should see how the men in the lesser tanks, the infantry, all the men fighting for the South everywhere look at us when our Tigers go by. I'm so proud they picked me to drive one.

Got a letter from Bill just a few days ago. He's okay. And he says that when the next offensive starts, nothing is going to hold us back. Not this time. It's the same thing the officers keep telling us; some of them are my old leaders from the Freedom Party Youth Corps, some are veterans from the 1st Guards Armored Division. They aren't like those losers in the Army. All the Army ever talks about is retreat.

Not us, though. Not the 12th. It's even in our division motto. "Forward For Dixie!" I painted it on the side of our tank. The Army can read it going past us as they run away.

Tell Henry I love him, and that Bill and I are fighting for him every hour of every day. I know it can't be easy having two sons fighting in the war, but remember we're both strong and smart, just like you raised us. I'm only seventeen, but I'm already a Junior Squad Leader.

They picked me to be the driver in our battalion commander's tank. He's a legend. Chief Assault Band Leader Matthew Whiteman himself. He's been blowing up Yankee barrels since the day this war started, and every kid in this division wants to meet him. Those Army idiots can call us the "Baby Division" all they want. They'll be hiding behind us soon enough.

I'm well, and I promise I'll always be careful. I'm a safe driver, and my crew like me a lot. I'll be home before you know it, Mother. The Yankees can't beat us. We're tougher than they are. We always will be.

Freedom!

Your son,

Charles S. Kusinis, Junior Squad Leader

12th Guards Armored Division, Freedom Party Guards

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 **A/N: Numerous analogies between the Freedom Party and the Nazi Party in the "Southern Victory" series by Harry Turtledove. The Freedom Party Guards represent the SS, and their military divisions are the same as the Waffen-SS. I made up the 1** **st** **and 12** **th** **Guards Armored Divisions as being representatives of the 1** **st** **and 12** **th** **SS Panzer Divisions. "Baby Division" is a nickname Allied soldiers gave to the 12** **th** **SS, since nearly all of its junior enlisted and even some NCOs and officers were teenagers, many of them under 17. The Waffen-SS believed themselves superior to the German Army in every way, and the Army thought in return that the SS were arrogant and stupid.**

 **The Razorback is a SV-series canon Confederate bomber, the Mule or "Asskicker" is the Junkers Ju-87 Stuka by another name. Matthew Whiteman is Michael Wittmann, legendary Waffen-SS Tiger commander. The Tiger doesn't appear in canon as the Confederacy's rare, highly-advanced heavy tank, but they do have such a vehicle and given the numerous connections between the CSA in the Settling Accounts books and Nazi Germany it might as well be the Tiger.**


End file.
